Sudan aid group halts activity

Khartoum - French aid group Medecins du Monde (MDM) said it had suspended on Wednesday activities in the Jebel Marra region of Darfur in western Sudan following a military offensive targeting a rebel hold-out group.

The town of Deribat, a stronghold of the Sudan Liberation Army faction of Abdel Wahid Nur, was attacked on Wednesday, the aid group said.

"Deribat, a town of 50 000 residents, was attacked on Wednesday, forcing the population to flee and bringing the number of displaced in the area to 100 000," said a statement obtained by AFP.

MDM is "concerned about the sanitary consequences of these displacements: the lack of access to care, insufficient access to drinking water, risks of a meningitis epidemic" and risks of "acute malnutrition" due to a bad harvest, the statement said.

The group had recently evacuated its expatriate staff due to fighting in Jebel Marra, with operations maintained by Sudanese staff.

"Sudanese staff who live [in the area] have left with their families," Jerome Larche, head of MDM operations in Sudan, told AFP.

The French group also condemned looting of its clinic in Feina, Jebel Marra, which it did not attribute to any party.

Sources said pro-government forces have been launching attacks for several weeks in the group's stronghold in order to pressure the rebel group to join the peace process underway in Doha.

"We have no information on this supposed fighting" in Deribat, a Sudanese army spokesperson told AFP.

The Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), one of two leading Darfur rebel groups signed a ceasefire deal with Khartoum on Tuesday in the Qatari capital which provides for a final peace agreement to be signed by March 15.